


A Wish for a Pin-Up Girl

by DaniCarli



Series: ETNuary Challenge [17]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Death, ETNuary, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Museum of the Dead, Purgatory, Resurrection, Temporary Character Death, genie wish, if Tana was brought back from the dead, poor girl doesn't know how to process
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22288054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaniCarli/pseuds/DaniCarli
Summary: What if Tana was brought back to life instead of Colleen in 4x07?  Here's how our beloved Pin-Up Girl returns
Series: ETNuary Challenge [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1588867
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	A Wish for a Pin-Up Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Day 17 of ETNuary: Tana Mongeau

Tana thought she was prepared for a final death. She was wrong, and she was scared when it happened. This was far worse than her last death because this time, there was _literal_ Hell to pay. 

She prepared for more pain, the feel of fire, the sound of tormented souls screaming, everything she read about that described Hell. But surprisingly, that’s not what she got.

Instead, it was almost a warm kind of peaceful, like a blanket covering her, keeping her safe. She felt a comfort, as if everything was going to be okay. For the first time in so long, Tana felt good, she felt happy, she felt...at peace. 

Maybe Gabbie was wrong. Maybe they weren’t going to Hell. Maybe they’ll all be okay. It felt that way for a while, something Tana never wanted to end.

But then out of nowhere, there was smoke, and then a blue, giant, kind of sexy, man with a beard appeared in front of her.

Before Tana can comprehend what’s happening, she awakes on familiar ground. 

The Pin-Up Girl slowly stands up and while a little groggy, takes in her surroundings. She realizes she’s still in the Britannia exhibit, in the same spot where the Black Knight killed her. _Wait, am I back at the museum? How is that possible?_

Tana warily looks around and before her lies another body in a pink gown. To her horror, she realizes it’s Gabbie, splayed out on her stomach, her eyes closed as if she were sleeping.

_Wait, did...did we_ both _die?_

It all comes back to Tana. Time ran out for her and Gabbie in the death challenge, with nothing to protect them from the Black Knight and his terrifying big knife ("it's a sword, Tana!"). He kept chasing them around, both unsure what to do as they still needed the key. Tana remembers Alex and the others appearing out of nowhere before she was grabbed and stabbed by the monstrous knight. As she laid on the ground in pain, she heard people screaming before the same sound of a sword stabbing through a body was heard. The last thing the blonde girl saw before darkness was the Knight throwing the limp Hollywood Star to the ground.

So many questions spin in Tana’s head, giving her another headache. She wants to cry, but her confusion is preventing it. She looks down, dreading to see the fatal wound she sustained. Instead, the blood on her stomach had vanished, and there’s no large hole through her. It’s as if she wasn’t stabbed by a big knife. _What is happening?_

“Your friends will explain it all to you back up there?” A voice behind her explains. 

Tana turns around and spots the same giant blue guy she saw before she woke up. “Who the _fuck_ are you?”

The blue man doesn’t answer her. He just stares at the body that was once Gabbie Hanna, Tana’s best friend and the girl she hated and loved. 

“I wish I could help her too,” he responds sadly, “but only one could return.”

_Only one could return? What does that mean?_

“What’s going on?” Tana tries to ask. How is she back in Purgatory? Didn’t the note say that once they died, there would be "no return"?

Once again, Blue Man just smiles and points back to the museum. “Your friends are waiting for you. I wish you good luck.” And with that, he disappears.

Tana is tired, confused, and her head hurts with so many questions. But the big guy did say her friends were waiting for her, so she might as well find out what happened.

As she makes her way to the building, she notices a dead freaky-looking woman, with snakes on her head, in the courtyard. Tana doesn’t remember seeing her when she was last alive. 

_How long was I dead?_

Tana isn’t able to get her answers right away. As soon as she steps into the empty lounge and calls out to her friends, she’s attacked by some woman with curly dark hair and dressed as if she were cosplaying as some 1700s bar wench.

The blonde girl screams and can barely react before the woman grabs her and puts a knife to her throat.

“Try anything, Love, and I will paint your pretty little neck with blood!” The woman hisses in a thick accent, as she drags Tana to an unknown area. 

Terror is mixed with confusion within Tana’s mind. She just died, then came back, and now she might die again? It is all too much, it’s nearly giving her a panic attack. Yet she obeys the woman’s orders to avoid being killed by a knife for the _third_ time in her life.

Tana is taken to the main foyer of the museum where she finds Joey, Alex, Bretman, and Rosanna ( _where's Colleen?_ ) The four spot her and nearly jump for joy at her sight. Although that fades when they find that this woman (who Tana discovers is actually a pirate) is threatening her life.

There’s a brief standoff, before the pirate demands Joey to spit on his fingers and recite some sing-songy chant. As soon as the Savant reluctantly does so, the woman finally lets Tana go.

Immediately, Tana is greeted with loving hugs from her four friends, all so happy to see her. As soon as she breaks from the embrace of a delightful, squealing Bretman, the blonde is faced with the pirate woman again, who gifts her some sort of ring as a show of friendship (which is odd since a couple seconds ago, this bitch tried to kill her.) As soon as she examines her new piece of jewelry, Tana turns to the others.

“Guys, will you tell me what’s going on?” Tana demands to know. “Because the last I checked, I was dead!”

She recaps what happened to her the moment she woke up on the grassy ground of the Britannia exhibit, hoping they can finally answer what Blue Man didn’t.

The others give their version of events: Mortimer got turned to stone by a Gorgon (the woman with the snake head), the Guardian Angel crystal delivered the two YouTubers who came with Joey to assist them (they have since left), Colleen was killed by a Minotaur in the Greek exhibit, then they met Blue Man (who turned out to be a genie) in the Arabian exhibit.

“In return,” Joey explains, “the genie granted us a wish to return one of our friends from the dead.”

“And we chose you, sis,” Bretman adds.

Tana stops processing what she missed in the last two hours as soon as she hears that. 

“Wait, hold up!” Tana can’t believe what she’s hearing. “So you’re telling me, that out of everyone who died so far, you chose _me_ to come back?” 

This is unbelievable, this can’t be true. Not too long ago in the Victorian Era, Tana was betrayed because her friends thought that she was useless. Then she was likely betrayed again for the same reason. So her friends are basically saying that they wanted _her_ to come back over the likes of Justine, Gabbie, and even Colleen?

Her friends look at her and smile. Behind those smiles are filled with love and appreciation for Tana, something she never felt in her whole life. Which means it’s really true.

Joey, the boy who helped betray her two years ago, steps forward. “You have really proven yourself here, Tana. I’ll admit you proved _me_ wrong, and I’m sorry that I doubted you. We all agreed that you were the most deserving of a second chance...or third in this case. So yes, we chose you.”

Tana almost bursts into tears at that moment. Any resentment she felt in the past is gone, replaced with happiness and sheer gratitude. She proved that she was more than just some ditzy, useless, blonde girl, and this is her reward. She made such an impression in Purgatory, that everyone in that room wanted her to be the one to come back to life. She now has another chance to escape this place and go home.

As happy tears fall down her rosy cheeks, Tana embraces her former killer, now savior. 

“Thank you!”

**Author's Note:**

> Tana proved a lot of people wrong in Season 4 and I'm proud of her for it. So much that two out of the remaining four wanted her to come back. Call her useless again, I dare you!


End file.
